Author, jazz writer and musician, Stuart Nicholson. He is an expert on and biographer of late jazz great Ella Fitzgerald. Through interviews with those closest to her,. "Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz" (1994, Charlse Scribner's Sons) shows the public and private side of the media-shy legend. In her career of over 60 years, she gained the admiration of her contemporaries in the business. At the age of 79 and after years of suffering from diabetes, Fitzgerald died Saturday (June 15) at her home in California.